Having a 10 year-old child flip the bird to the Race Director . . . how lovely.

I am not sure he is even 10 y.o. But, what is even worse he is the kid of a SPONSOR, so you can see why nothing was done.

I DO AGREE with Ihor, the race director was awful, he yelled at the kids and told them how bad of a job they had done the day before, when in reality the kids put on an awsome race, the entire FWT workers (and I use the term workers loosely) were as bad as the race director, and there was not enough corner workers.

We did get to see a helicopter land and take of several times this weekend.

Literally just got home, we salvaged the weekend by going swimming in the ocean at Daytona Beach. Okay, Jesse went swimming, I stood there with a hoodie on and looked cold...

Thank you Rick, Carl, Wes, and Ross for helping me to see what racing is supposed to be about and that I really just need to ignore the race officials when they are being stupid. When there is nothing to be done, there is no need to point it out, again.

My upsetness (new word) on Saturday had nothing to do with how the race finished for Jesse, I was happy he wasn't in a helicopter like the other three guys. It came from watching Jesse do the right thing and sit in his kart while being struck by a competitor in front of the race director, then from being told about him being hit in the head twice more without retailiation while sitting in his kart on the scales. I'm proud of him for doing the right thing and embarrassed that the right thing resulted in him being told several times by the race director that he is going to watch him like a hawk and DQ him if he touches anyone else. Huh?, he doesn't even get the 'handshake the next day' free pass? It's not like he was hit hard enough to be hurt, he did a lot more damage to himself playing tackle football and manhunt every night with the mini and micro drivers. It was a principle thing, just because his dad owns Mont Tremblant racetrack and gave away a Ferrari track day, the rules do not apply to him. Whatever, I'm over it...

Ihor is so very right about the corner working. This is certainly a different crew from last year. In my opinion, lawn chairs don't belong under corner workers butts. The head flagman should be somewhere near the track with a flag, ANY FLAG!, in his hand when a little kid is ejected from his kart right on the start finish line, and should be near the track before five more karts (two that were almost part of the incident and three more after it) can pass by without any flags.

It was very hard to bite my tongue and not undermine trhe authority of the race director every time he gathered the kids together to tell them that a kid rode the helicopter because of them, because they ignored the imaginary yellow flag.

But beyond that, we still had a really good time. First day qualifying was just unlucky for Jesse, he never managed to hook up with the four kart draft that worked together beautifully for several laps to claim the top 4 positions. Lesson learned.

The prefinal, despite the red flag and restart, went well for him. He had some tough racing to do. The final ended badly, two karts in the same position, and as much as I hate to admit it, Lance Stroll is a very good driver who made no more of an aggrssive defensive move than Jess did an aggressive offensive move. Neither gave in, both paid for it in the final results. I think it was a battle for third at the time.

Sunday was better for us in a wierd way. Jesse had an opportunity to push Ross down the front straight, and Ross stayed with him for a lap or two afterwards until fatigue set in. In the final, Jesse had a great battle with two other drivers, many, many passes without a single touch throughout the race. The mid-pack race may not offer trophies, but it seems a lot more respectful. I'd prefer the front race though....

This weekend was really just one of those strings of unlucky moments that racing can provide sometimes. When not mired in the mid-pack, we could race with the fast kids, but had no hope of catching them if they broke away. On day one, with six of the top seven kids in the final calling Homestead their hometrack, we didn't do too bad.

We'll skip Round 2 and see if the reviews are any better before making a decision about Round 3. Our finishing positions were our own doing, and have no bearing on the decision to skip round two. My discussions with the scale operator (positive), Don Moormiester (spelling?, positive), Terry the Race Director (very negative), and Bill Wright (understanding, yet negative) drive this decision. I really don't want to ride in a helicopter that bad either, but I decided to allow Jesse to race under the conditions presented and accept that responsibility.

Thanks again Rick for all the help figuring out how to unglue a kart from the track. We would have been legitimately in the bottom half without you.

Btw, I'm sure the race director and corner worker issues will be sorted out by the next round. I know Bill has very high standards, and that once an event is started, there's not much that can be done to solve these sort of things realtime without risking mutiny.

After a night of sleep, I expected that I would regret writing my previous weekend recap. I don't.

I do still think that the ontrack racing was some of the best the country has to offer, and the offtrack experiences were also the best we've experienced as well.

The FWT staff, with the exception of tech, scales, and registration, should have to say they are sorry and shake hands with every participant. Unfortunately that's the biggest sanction allowed int he FWT rules, so it will have to do.

Experiencing tech inspection on Saturday (pre-final) was a highlight for me personally. Don takes the job very seriously and looks a lot further than I am comfortable with when it comes to taking things apart at the track. For that, I am grateful.

The post race each night was also great. The kids would disappear until well after dark, come back dirty and bruised, and with big smiles. I know they had fun.

I'm very thankful for having the quality of drivers that were there in each class. This group of racers were able to make the best of a poor situation and provide some great racing. I'm not sure I could afford to race in the more competitive classes, but we'll find out soon enough.

Ross improved his times every session on the track and more importantly, followed every instruction given to him by the flagmen and race director, even when those instructions were wrong and caused him short sessions. It's hard to believe he's only 7 years old.

Huge thanks to all of the guys at MRP. Your efforts meant a lot to all of us.

One question for all of the people who are qualified to perform tech inspections. I am making a couple tire width "no-go" gauges. Rotax rules limit Micro amd Minimax tire width to 145mm. with no specification for tolerance. Should I make the gauge 145mm wide, 145.5mm wide, or some other value?

I brought our trailer back instead of having it parked there for free for the next event. This drasticaly reduces our chances to go there in February. The kart was finally setup right before the final race. With Eric's help we improved a lot, from being glad we were not last year ago to knocking on top 10.
I will wait for changes to officials team before making trip to Ocala.
Looking forward for great local 2009 season and maybe new places to race in GA.